


Bitter

by SilverServerError



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Angst, M/M, cw suicidal thoughts, more vent fic i guess, post tokyo revelations, they fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 09:46:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14998199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverServerError/pseuds/SilverServerError
Summary: There was a screech from the table as Fai began to lunge, then immediately stopped himself, eye narrow, heart pounding with an anxious frailty he’d been ignoring for days. Nostrils full of the overpowering scent of his prey, tantalizing and well feed before him.Kurogane smiled at him, utterly joyless.





	Bitter

Fai had enjoyed it at first.   
  
Somewhere past the ache and the agony.   
  
The hurt and the betrayal.

 

It was satisfying on some level to know that Kurogane was suffering at least a fraction of what he felt like Fai himself was trying to breathe through in every moment. Satisfying that after all this time of so blatantly waiting for death that Kurogane finally felt concern about it with some sort of urgency.   
  
On some level.

 

On every other…

 

Kurogane hadn’t been through what he had. Someone had reached into the water to pull a young Kurogane back to dry land, however uncomfortable that beach had been. But Fai was practiced at drowning.   
  
Nothing new.   
  
Nothing interesting.

 

And the constant anxiety radiating off his for worse or for worse traveling companion was starting to annoy. 

 

“Can you stop?” Fai spoke, breaking the silence between them, his tone so unforgiving against the cheery jingle that was filtering in from the main hallway. Through the voices in their own animated conversations. They felt a world away and gratingly close all at once. “If you saw at that steak any harder, you’re going to break the plate beneath.”

 

Fai’s gaze didn’t shift from zoning out on the steak and the red-brown juice that collected in the basin of porcelain. It was the perfect view to catch the flex of Kurogane’s grip.

 

“I should break you instead,” Kurogane hissed, voice low and body going very still.

 

Fai leaned forward, resting his chin on two fists as he propped his elbows up on the table, his attention caught. It took so much to get a rise out of Kurogane these days. It hadn’t happened since-

 

Well.   
  
It hadn’t happened since.

 

He looked over his companion with one amber eye, and though he smiled, the expression somehow managed to be colder than the icy blue had ever been.

 

“Oh?” He tipped his head and batted his eyelashes. “But Kurogane, you know how much I hate pain.”

 

Kurogane met his eye, then very carefully finished chewing. Fai watched his throat work as he swallowed.

 

(Ten days. Ten days since he’d last choked down that blood.)

 

When his mouth was empty, Kurogane spoke, a casual disdain seeping into every word. “As much as I hate liars?”

 

There was a screech from the table as Fai began to lunge, then immediately stopped himself, eye narrow, heart pounding with an anxious frailty he’d been ignoring for days. Nostrils full of the overpowering scent of his prey, tantalizing and well feed before him.

 

Kurogane smiled at him, utterly joyless.

 

Around the resturant eyes strayed their way.

 

“Careful,” Kurogane said under his breath, tone soft and lilting in imitation as he forced a shallow smile onto his face in a way that was insultingly familiar, “don’t let your temper ruin dinner for all these nice people, Fai-tan. The children would be so embarrassed.”

 

Fai tucked his chin, feeling the stares but refusing to meet any of them. Kurognae just watched in smug satisfaction and they stilled long enough for the attention to move away once more.

 

“I have to go,” Fai said simply.

 

Kurogane barked a laugh. It was dark, but honest. “Coward.”

 

Fai’s head snapped up again, this time meeting Kurogane with open challenge.

 

“Oh don’t pout. We’re just starting to have some fun, aren’t we?” Kurogane’s eyes narrowed like a scalpel. “So grumpy.”

 

Fai’s tone dropped to murderous like a stone, finally giving in to the burning of his stomach. “I’m going to eviscerate you.”

 

Kurogane smiled around his fork as he put another bite in his mouth. “You can try.”

 

“Of course I can. Don’t be stupid.” Fai’s hands clenched the table’s edge as his lip curled back in a snarl that flashed his fangs at Kurogane.

 

“Oh, I know you can.” He set the knife down, seeming to relax more the tighter Fai was wound. “I just don’t think you _can_.”

 

“Because you’re my prey?”

 

“Because I don’t think you have it in you.”

 

Fai caught himself as he almost pounced again, then forced himself to breathe. To let go of table’s edge. To swallow around the acid in his throat. “Why are you baiting me?” he asked, voice small, expression closed off and inscrutable.

 

Across the table Kurogane’s expression drew quiet. Somber. “Because I can’t get you to come to me any other way anymore, Fai.”

 

Fai pushed back, spine straight and uncomfortable despite the plush fabric of the cushions. The moment of vulnerability was more repugnant than any of the insults Kurogane could lob his way. “And whose fault is that?”

 

Kurogane’s response surprised him. He expected denial. The same argument once more as they’d had all the other times. Instead, “Not ours,” he said quietly, pushing the unfinished plate of his meal away, no longer hungry for it.  


End file.
